Metro News & Reviews

Pics from Metro’s first Bikeshare demo in DTLA

Metro and its bike share vendor Bcycle demonstrate how the future bike share kiosks will work.

Metro’s new bikeshare vendor, Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc. and its partner B-Cycle on Thursday provided its very first bike and docking station demonstration in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles. Metro and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation staffed a booth to gather public feedback on the system and locations for bikeshare docking stations in downtown, where Metro’s bikeshare pilot project is scheduled to be unveiled at 65 locations next year.

Those who visited the docking demo Thursday were able to personally test-ride the bikes and see how their TAP card could be used to release the bikes from their docking stations. Additional demonstrations are planned for:

“how their TAP card could be used to release the bikes from their docking stations”

A great big first step in enhancing TAP cards to pay for something other just for transit. Hopefully this is opens doors to a lot more opportunities for TAP to start becoming a regional reloadable debit card like the T-Money Card in Seoul or the Octopus Card in Hong Kong that can be used to buy things all over So Cal, not just used to pay for mass transit.

I also see you’ve uploaded a new preview of the better TAP website that finally we’re going to get which has been delayed and pushed back for so long. Any news on when this will be live?

That’s great! I can’t wait to use bike share to finish my Expo Line ride from 7th/Metro to my office in downtown. Do you know if they’re still taking suggestions for bike share station locations in downtown, or if they’ve already completed that part of the plan?

There seems to be different design elements on the bikes shown in the pictures. The black and white bike has a covered chain, no exposed wiring and a small basket in the front similar to the bikes in NYC, Chicago and Washington D.C. The green bike has exposed wiring and seems to have a different basket design. The red bike has a large basket and the blue bike seems to have a different basket than the red or black and white bike. Which bike design will be used in downtown LA, the black and white?

I’m more excited that we finally have another use for TAP cards now instead of just being LA County public transit money. It’s a big move in the right direction in the slow pace of government bureaucracy these days while the speed of technology gets faster and faster.

The next step is definitely converting all the Metro and municipally owned parking lots into paid parking lots and using TAP cards (and hopefully, smartphones) for parking fee payments. One obvious place to start testing this would be One Gateway Plaza: TAP in upon entering the parking structure, TAP out when exiting the parking structure, TAP automatically deducts the parking fee based on how many hours you parked there.

I don’t see why it can’t be that difficult. It’s the same way one can use their VISA or MC at Ralphs, Vons, Albertson’s, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market. El Super, Hannam Market, 99 Ranch, or Marukai. Paying with a TAP card is no different, if you can pay with bikeshare vendor A, then it can be used to pay for bikeshare vendor B. This shouldn’t be so hard than a VISA card if you ask me.

It’s not a question of how to pay, it’s a question about picking up a bike at one location and dropping it off at another. The MTA vender is in downtown. The other cities have all picked another vender.

Yes, bikeshare is transit. But allowing TAP cards for this is still a very big first step for LA because this is the first time TAP is used to pay for anything other than just riding buses and Metro Rail.

Did you know in other more advanced countries in the world, their contactless cards can be used to pay for taxi cabs, ferries, vending machines, convenience stores, tax payments, hospital visits, parking lots, and that it’s even an app on a smartphone? And that it has their own rewards program?

We’re so far behind the rest of the world it’s not even funny. The fact that everyone is excited that TAP cards can be used to rent bicycles speaks for itself how sad we are. We can’t even ride Metrolink with TAP cards for crying out loud! Man, we’re so backwards!